The Fairytale Shakespeare
by Teao Girl
Summary: The title is self explanatory... Antony and Cleopatra written in the style of a fairytale


Shakespeare's Fairytale

Many years ago, and many miles away, there was a Queen, who ruled over a fair country, rich in both gold and in the love the people bore for her. Many men, kings and princes alike, had fallen under the spell of the beautiful, charming Queen. A soldier was one such of these men, but not only a soldier but a triumvir, and so, a prince of Rome.

His men despised the grandeur and the ostentation of the Egyptian Court, rich with silks and gold and served by eunuchs and fine women, and believed him a fool for his love for the Queen. They thought her a witch, a sorceress, able to captivate him so, and all the men before him, and spent many hours in remembering his former greatness as a soldier, having led many armies and won many battles, all in the name of Rome, and for its greatness and fortune. Now, he cared little for Rome, pledging his love only to Egypt and to her Queen. When messengers came on Roman business, Antony would refuse them, to return to his Queen, and his leisure.

It so happened that, in Rome, far from the Soldier Prince's watchful eye, his wife, had gone in battle against the Caesar of Rome. News of her defeat was finally brought to the prince, and herd by him. He mourned the death of his wife, although it was something once longed for. In his grief, he blamed his actions, as his fellow Romans did, and knew, in his heart, that it was his fascination with the fair Queen that led him so far from home and from his duty.

Thenceforth, without delay, the Prince, with his loyal servant, set forth from Egypt, going to far Rome in order to take his duties in hand. His beloved Queen wept at his departure, but behind her teas a gleam of malice, a desire for control. Her tears were not all for sorrow, some shed to instill guilt in the retreating back of the already guilt-ridden king. The many court games she had played with him, keeping him in great suspense, all the while straining for her full affection, did not leave her along with her lover. However, after his departure, she pined for him: neither her favourite ladies nor her trusted eunuchs could distract her with their games and their pastimes. She sent to him each day many letters and tokens of her love, declaring such to be imperative for her survival and that of her land.

Meanwhile, the prince travelled with haste to reach his home country, where his arrival was awaited in dread. The great and powerful Caesar held his fellow Prince in low esteem after his time in Egypt, and others dreaded the return of the famed warrior. Our Prince and the mistrustful Caesar met, in state occasion, and came to terms of agreement once more. A marriage was arranged, a stately wedding to be held, to join together the great Prince and the pure and beautiful sister of the Caesar.

This news was to be met with monumental anger by the far-distant Queen, her jealousy forcing her into temper with the messenger, who is forced to report to the Queen on every feature of the unfortunate bride. Unfortunate indeed, as the Prince bore no love for her, and in his haste to return to Egypt, she rode swiftly back to her brother, unwilling to be wife to a man in the presence of his mistress, and to stay in matrimony with a husband who found it impossible to honour the arrangements made by her brother.

The bride's return enraged her brother, who had hoped for a truce with the famed soldier to be reached, and held. To the disappointment of many, the Prince's quick abandonment and lack of care for Caesar's beloved sister, his bride, dashed any hope for such a truce as they had come to, and possibility of a friendship returned had been lost forever

The Prince, in the meantime, was joyfully, reunited with his Queen, but she, too showed anger towards her lover at his marriage: she saw such as a belittling of her love, and of the love that he had pledged to her, a love for Egypt and her Queen, and abandonment of the patriotism he had felt for Rome. He, in desperate measure to confirm his love to her, made her Queen of many of his lands, making her even the ruler of far Syria in order to placate the beautiful, high- tempered woman who held him so very fast in her power.

Any remains of the agreement between the Caesar and the Prince were lost, indeed, war between these great men was inevitable. The great Caesar held his navy in high regard, and the Queen, in her belief of the greatness of her nation, sent out her meagre fleet to the battle. Her warriors warned her against it, reminded her of the great force of the land army of Egypt, and of the strength of Caesar's naval force, but still she insisted on a battle at sea, and not only that, should it not be a foolish decision enough, but that she should accompany the ships, and she, a mere woman if also a queen, be in the centre of battle.

Against the advice and wishes of all of the Egyptian soldiers, sailors and advisors to the Queen, the lovers launched for their battle at sea. But the excitement, the action proved too much even for the powerful, determined Queen, and her ship was turned back again to land, whilst her Prince, like some trained puppy of a lapdog, followed his Queen, leaving their troops leaderless and with no hope of anything but defeat.

The Prince, ever the great and noble warrior, was enraged by his Queen's retreat, placing the burden on the loss upon her shoulders, the lover in him being too weak to face the soldier in his character. She, tearful, refused such any claims, and even the Prince's loyal Servant believed that the Prince should not have followed in her wake, that it was only his own foolish dependence on the Queen that caused the battle to be lost to them. For a woman, having no place in warcraft, or on the battlefield, should not, could not, be expected to stay fast through such terrors.

The defeated Prince, however, continued in rage, staying from the chastened Queen, and thus going unaware of the arrival of a messenger from Caesar in Rome, brought to the fair Queen. He bore news that, should the Queen cast her Prince out, or, by far the preferable, find some means for his death, she should have the ear of Caesar, his protection, and his power behind her. The Prince, returning to his Queen in some state of apology for his anger to her, cannot help but hear this fearful news, and was disgusted by what he saw as her betrayal of him. Upon his entry to the room, he ordered the whipping of the unfortunate messenger of such poor tidings.

It was to be shown, however, that the Queen's word was enough to calm even the fiery Prince, and he, again, was under her control. His Servant, now unable to reconcile reason with the irrational behavior of his master, chose to end such loyalty to the Prince as previously he had borne, instead going to Caesar, with greater chance of success in the ill-fated but inevitable war. The Prince, who was even so long ago considered a fool by his men for his blind love now lost the respect of even the greatest of his followers. But, he, perhaps, was a greater man than could have been predicted, for, upon learning of his long-loyal Servant's abandonment, he sent on the jewels and other treasure belonging to his now unfaithful friend, who, in guilt for his actions and the Prince's generosity, would even cause his own death through the guilt he felt at the kindness shown to him after his desertion.

The remains of The Prince's men, too, feared for his survival, and doubted his smallest chance at victory. Some had heard upon the air, and from far under the earth, music, of an ethereal nature, the abandonment, they claimed of their leader by the god Hercules, from whom the Prince had long claimed his descent. The loss of the blessing of the legendary warrior, they feared, was but a forerunner of the defeat of their soldier Prince.

In contrary, against any hope of such an outcome, he was to return from battle, injured, but alive, and, of greater importance, victorious, into the arms of his Queen, rejoicing with all their soldiers. But strife cannot end in a victory so simple, for indeed, more battles were to come. He made his vow that he should destroy the army of Caesar on the very day following. After such great victory on land, he prepared to meet the naval forces of his rival, watching the battle himself from safe land. The sailors, contrary to the belief of Antony, were sure of their defeat after the last fateful sea-battle, and so, in desperation, defect to Caesar, pledging alliance to their former enemy.

The Prince, as so often before, fell into rage, for the great soldier and commander had great power and, so, great temper. The Queen bore his anger, for he blamed her for the weakness of her troops, and for their disloyalty, causing the cunning Queen to hide herself away, and send word of her death, that she had taken her life, through shame at defeat, believing that he would come to her, return to her in penitence and shame, should he believe her dead for love of him.

Instead, he mourned for her, never suspecting that such news could be false. Indeed, he deemed himself the tragic lover he would come to be, and determined, that, to have his honour, he must needs kill himself. A servant, his nearest replacement for his lost loyal friend, he orders to kill him, giving his great sword. Greatness, however, cannot come to those who choose the cowards path, and so, the servant, wiser than his master, would not take the life of the Prince, but instead ended his own, leaving the distraught Prince to perform his own suicide.

Could he but have died immediately, he would never have known such grief as he would come to know, for, in trying to attain his own death, he failed, leaving him yet a short time to live. The wounded soldier was taken to the Queen's side, the living, breathing Queen, whom he believed dead, and so she knew of the impact of her message. Her beloved Prince was to die in her own arms, knowing of her deceit.

She could not bear the world without him, just as he, despite all their blame and disappointment, could not live without his Queen. And so, past all the guards of Caesar, sent to bring her to Rome as a prize, she was brought an asp, a snake so poisonous as to kill any whom it should bite: its kiss, just as that of the Queen and her Prince, was fatal.

And so, she died, to the anger, but also the respect of Caesar. For he knew that such love was true, and surpassed all counties, all politics, all boundaries. And so, in afterlife, it was that the tragic lovers were to rule King and Queen of all of Heaven, together, in happiness and love, for all the days of eternity.


End file.
